A Path of Her Own…

Small Things of Wonder

Moths bumping against the screen on a summer night. Seeking the light from indoors. What does it look like to them? Is it a bright star they are mysteriously drawn to?

I’ve been working on another handmade book – a smaller project than the last one. Was thinking about the little moments in-between the spaces of our lives. The small transitory and easily forgotten things we see in a blink and file away to be remembered or forgotten, but none-the-less, recorded by our brains.

This book is made mostly of recycled materials. I used recycled paper from cardboard boxes that I soaked in water until I could strip the paper from the corrugated box sides. Its a really nice heavy brown paper, that takes a lot of water and rubbing and sewing into without buckling or tearing. I’ve had these small pieces saved in a box for the longest time – but I knew I would find a way to use them eventually!

Found objects , leaves, stones, twigs, old pieces of darning…whatever seems right at the moment. I’m sewing the pages together and binding it with cardboard backing. For the backgrounds I’m using mostly watercolors and oil pastels – my two favorite mediums. I’ve only completed a few pages which I’m sharing with you today. I drew the moths on some scrap papers leftover from the last project. I bought the bunny at a flea market – I think its from an old cuckoo clock. He has a nice little red bead for an eye.

The mountains were made from the paint over edges when I made paste papers. They were the papers laying on the work surface to protect the surface from the paint. I’d torn a piece from the edge and folded it down so it was the white torn side against the paste paper over brushing and I thought it looked like mountains. I glued it over the scraps of over brushing, and painted it in blue, purple, and gray. I think it does look like mountains in the background, and strata in the foreground. I outlined the torn edges a little so they would show up more.

I’ve still got more to do – more to color and layer over the brown base.

You have such wonderful ideas! It always makes my day to see a new post of you art. I love how the screen poses over the moth picture, Delightful bunny scene, and yes, I see the mountains. Trust you to see something useful in what most people would simply throw out. Lovely vision!

4 Rooms and the Moon

“There is an Indian proverb that says that everyone is a house with four rooms, a physical, a mental, an emotional, and a spiritual . Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time but unless we go into every room every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person.” - Rumer Godden